Here is the picture of the floor plan for the second floor.

What is the area of the current design?

The total current space is 4427. We like most everything about the layout of the existing floor plan except for the extra large space in the entry and on the second floor in the study area, but we are not sure how to reduce those spaces.

Do your parents need that spare room and the powder room?

I would totally eliminate the spare room and powder room from the parents area. And I'd find a way to not have visitors pass through the garage area. It needs it's own separate entry, and there needs to be a connection with the rest of the house as well. You don't want them coming through the garage to come to a family dinner or the kids traipsing through the garage to visit grandma and grandpa. THey'll need access to the laundry area as well. I'd try to create a "family entry" and mud area accessed from the garage that also lets people access the "2nd master or en suite guest room" area. If you think of it more in those terms, you'll have better flow and resale value down the road.

I'd also actually try to increase the parents area's bath size to be able to have it be ADA compliant.

Hi sboivie, we also have grandparents living with us. I think it would be great if your whole family could share laundry facilities, and you might ask whether your folks would be willing to give up the powder room. Having been through a similar discussion, I will tell you that we did not eliminate the spare room from the grandparents' suite in our house. Hopefully some of the talented folks here can help you with some rearranging to get rid of some of the space that is not being used in your initial floorplan (and maybe incorporate some of live_wire_oak's good suggestions).

I think it's wonderful that you're going to have your parents living with you...and I like the powder room and spare room. They need to have enough space and a separate powder room is often necessary for entertaining. As we age, we sometimes need more grab bars and tall toilets, etc. (went through that with my grandmother) and having a separate powder room can be a very nice feature.

You could rework the entry and eliminate the study area upstairs, maybe some of the walk in closets...but I don't know how effective that would be. They're in the middle of the house and the roof is still there.

Is that a fireplace in the living/dining room? Do you plan to watch TV there or use the family room...or is that just for the kids? Is the living room/dining room large enough for 8 people, on a regular basis, assuming your parents will spend some time with you?

If you like the current floor plan, the easiest way to eliminate the square footage is to eliminate the upstairs family room and maybe the spare room for your parents. I don't think I'd want to do either, so maybe make some different budget choices to accommodate the extra square footage.

Another option is to make some changes to the floor plan. Would it be more affordable to put some of the rooms (office, family room, kids' spaces) in a basement? Is that even a possibility?

I don't think we can shrink the space for my parents too much. Part of the deal is that they sold their home and are using the equity to help us with the down payment. They are young enough (early 70s) that we, and they want their space to still kind of feel like their own house. The second room is so my mom can paint.

We have thought about eliminating the powder room.

I will have to think more about a shared laundry space. Right now on the plan there is space for them to have their own laundry as they enter in from the garage. They will also have their own "front" door that is shown in the living room.

We definitely want two living spaces. The family room will be the TV area, and the living room on the main floor will be where the piano is, and where we hang out, and have guests over, etc.

I have been trying to think of ways I can squeeze the whole rectangle a little to reduce the size of the entry and the study area upstairs. I keep wondering if moving the staircase or the office would make the process easier.

I agree with cutting out the powder room in your parents' portion of the house, but I'd keep the separate laundry. It's only a small closet, but it gives you a complete separate house. None of us know what might happen in the future, and it's possible that in 10-20 years your parents might want to live in a different plqce, or might no longer be with you (sorry to be a bummer), and having a separate house would open you to the possibility of renting that area. Yeah, I know that's not your plan now, but staying versatile so you have options is always a good idea (like when you start paying for college). I have no problem with going through the garage to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It provides more separation than a hallway.

To eliminate square footage, I'd get rid of the upstairs family room. Let the kids have the current study area for a family room / TV area, and they can study in their rooms.

I agree that the foyer is overly large, but I don't see how to improve it.

I do not care for the windowless kitchen. I wonder if you could somehow bring the kitchen to the area that is now the staircase / powder room spot, which would give it a window . . . But that separates the kitchen from the dining room, which is bad.

In your parents' living quarters, reconsidering not having a peninsula, but rather make it like a table seating for two. Redesign the kitchen layout because it appears to take up far too much space from the living area.

Post this on the kitchen forum where you will receive excellent ideas.

Another possibility it to make the stairs and L shape rather than U by the entry. The powder room can be reconfigured. We were able to achieve a closet that turned into a walk in pantry.

Your goal is to reduce the floor area by approximately 10%. Of course, not all floor area costs the same to build. For example, kitchens and baths cost a lot more per SF to build than a garage. So the question really is a question of budget, not SF.

Obviously, the simplest floor area reduction is to reduce the garage to a 2-car garage. Another obvious reduction is to eliminate the improves space above the garage and leave it attic which can be improved at a later time, as financed permit.

More difficult are area reductions such as the entry and the second floor space above the entry. These are possible, but will also will entail reductions in other first and second floor spaces, ie, a "ripple-effect" created by taking space out of the center of the plan.

Only you can sort out your priorities and where you feel you may best take the reductions.

Good luck on your project.

In my experience, there's no way to cut sq footage without cutting sq footage. You can try to tweak the inlaw set up...the bedroom is a good size...do they need an extra room and 1 1/2 baths...or you can try to tweak the main house...the study area in the stair well is huge, do you need an office downstairs, but typically that won't get you to a significantly smaller size. That will probably take a complete redesign. Rip it up and start again.

At least that's what we did until we finally got a design that fit our needs and our sq ft requirement.

That's also probably why it took us 7 years to design our house!
Yikes!

But I agree with VC that not all sq ft are equal in cost and as long as you are leaving in the same number of baths and kitchens, then the costs of adding extra sq ft that is largely 2x4s and sheet rock is not that high. Operating costs may be more of a consideration...heat, a/c, electric, insurance, taxes, furnishings, cleaning, maintenance...

Perhaps cut the powder room (more expensive) and make the bath open from a common area instead of only the parents room. And if that bath is to serve potentially elderly folks, you definitely need to have it be universally designed for the possibility of a wheelchair. That includes the whole space, as well as the entry into it from the parking area for it to the visitor's entry.

This is a VERY important consideration for you to plan for if the home is to actually serve the functions that you are planning it to serve. Otherwise, if some medical issue causes one parent to need assistance of a walker or a chair (even for a short time) they won't be able to occupy that space comfortably.

I would cut two or three feet right across the kitchen and entry/office area, then grab a foot or two back from the dining area for the kitchen. Upstairs, the space comes from the study area, and by reducing to one bath upstairs - make it a split bath so kids can get ready at sinks while another is showering. Yeah, the second bath upstairs is nice, but baths cost more per square foot than anything besides kitchens. You have the powder room downstairs, if kids need a toilet. :)

You could also eliminate a foot right across the entire width of the house - living room, office, entry, and probably space from the laundry room. You could move the utility closet to another part of the garage to grab some of that space for the home interior if you need to rework that area.

You can eliminate an entire foot all along the width of the upstairs as well. Bedrooms (1/2' each), study, hall, game room upstairs.

I would not make the in-law suite any smaller, but I would eliminate the "U" shaped kitchen and make it an "L" shaped kitchen. They'll have room for a slightly larger table, as well, which will be nice of they want to entertain friends. If you make the kitchen an "L" shape, you could add a small pantry and small broom closet.

I would grab the laundry area in their space to enlarge their bathroom and make it "elder" friendly. Perhaps rework the coat closet for a stackable washer/dryer. They can hang hooks on that wall if they need a place for coats.

Their walk-in closet is very small - sure it's that all important "walk-in closet," but they'd have a lot more storage space if you used the whole exterior wall for his and her closets. Their clothes will be easier to access should one of them need a walker or wheel chair. I like the size of their bedroom since you can include a small sitting area in the room - it's nice to get away from each other for a while. :)

Going smaller means....well, going smaller, but I wouldn't take anything from the in-law suite - just change it to make it more elder friendly and give them more storage space (master closet, broom closet, pantry).

Good luck!

This post was edited by bird_lover6 on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 10:39

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We are going to talk to our architect tonight. You guys make a lot of great points, including the ones that we are still going to have lots of bathrooms and two kitchens.

I will probably post again after we have made some changes to the size and just get more general feedback.

What is your lot size? Are you pretty restricted in your dimensions? Is cost the main motivation to cut square footage? If so, I don't think I would compromise on the floor plan too much. Instead delay some finishes until a later date. May you can do your parents appliances in a few months and share a kitchen.

The reason I am asking is that I think this can be done a lot better. This plan is pretty boxy and there's a whole cave area in the middle with multiple room without windows. You walk in and have a view of a notched wall and part of kitchen.

Would it be possible to move the master bedroom to the left, next to the dining room?

And move your parents bedroom to the top of their living room. This will allow you to have windows in the kitchen.

I guess I'm imaging an L shaped house with your portion as one wing, your parents as the other wing and the garage, mudroom, laundry, powder room and side entry at the corner connecting the two with views of a nice courtyard patio.

At this point everything is possible. Our lot is plenty big, it is just over 1 acre. Cost is definitely the main motivation to cut square footage, but we also just don't want a huge house.

The general boxiness of the layout is intentional. It is easier and cheaper to build simple rectangular shapes. This saves you money on foundation and framing, and later roofing (because of less-complicated roof lines).

We could move the master bedroom, but I generally don't love having access to the MB right off a main portion of the house. I like the way the entrance to the MB is secluded right now.

But we can make bigger changes at this stage if we want or need to.

Oh, the other reason the MB is on that side is because I have wanted to try and keep all of the plumbing for the main house in a more concentrated area. This also saves money in labor costs, and potentially makes future repair or other work easier because there won't be plumbing runs snaking all through the house. However, if this constraint makes the floorplan not work, it is worth re-considering it.

I'm brand new to this forum as well but I am currently in the middle of a build that includes living quarters for my parents. My husband and I started off with a plan very similar to yours, with a separate "wing" for my parents. We learned very quickly that the cost to build that plan was just not going to work for us. It was much more affordable to completely finish the basement into an apartment area with full daylight access on the one side. Our total square footage including the basement is just over 3,800.

They will have their own kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom w/ laundry, office and bedroom as well as their own "front door." It saved us almost $100,000 to not have that extra foundation and roof. Is a basement an option for you?

Assuming YOUR front door will face the street, if I were your parents, I would not like having my "front" door at the very back of the house. Guests coming to visit your parents will have to walk around to the back yard in order to reach their front door and that will seem awkward and unwelcoming... especially if many of their friends are also elderly and starting to have mobility issues.

Since you mentioned HOA restrictions, I assume that means you already own the land where you intend to build. If by any chance your property is a corner lot, I would attempt to rearrange things so that parents' front door faces one street and your front door faces the other. If you are not building on a corner lot, then both front doors really need to somehow face the front street. Or, at the very least, parent's front door needs be no more than a few steps from the parking pad leading to the garage bay that they will use.

Also, you mentioned "central Texas" and, as you know, the heat here can be brutal. It was already 82 degrees when I go up at 7AM this morning! Have you taken into account the direction that the sun moves when orienting your house and placing windows? The longest axis of the house really needs to run E-W and, to the maximum extent possible, you want to avoid placing windows on the west side of the house. Unless heavily shaded by tall trees, west facing windows just admit way too much heat.